@aurora72, the message went away for me when I downgraded from Catalina to High Sierra. I don’t know why.
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In which versions of macOS does the "Service Battery" message appear?
- Thread starter EugW
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Thank you for the info. Upon this, I've downgraded from M. Lion to Lion and that message went away too
This proves that this message is really about some organizational decision on Apple's part, rather than a technical neccessity. Well,the battery is in mint condition in every way you may look at it: stable charging stable draining (the percentage decreases very stable), no overheat no swelling of the battery whatsoever and heck it shows the condition as normal in System Information on Lion:
In retrospect, I’m sure I’ve seen the message before in High Sierra on the same machine with the same battery.
I suspect my battery is borderline, thus the inconsistency.
The cycle count of 328 is 1/3 of what Apple defines as the threshold (1000 cycles) to discard the battery. Mine is 706 cycles which is about 2/3 of the threshold and it can hold charge like brand new and it operates the laptop perfectly, i.e. no jumps across the percentage number. To me it's a perfectly healthy battery but the Mountain Lion and up evaluates it as a battery in need. Fortunately, Lion is good enough version that I can use on laptop.
It only has 1/3rd the cycles, but it's the original battery from 2009, and it's been plugged in sitting on a desk for much of that time.
Cycles are only one part of the equation.
@EugW Yep, cycles themselves don't determine the real condition of the battery.
Meanwhile I've plugged in the Mojave HDD and the Service Battery message is gone! Last time I've used the Mojave HDD, it was appearing consistently. But on the downside, it still keeps on not showing the time Remaining. It shows just "Power Source: Battery"
The System Information >> Power shows the battery condition as 'Normal'. It used to show "Service Battery"
I wonder if it's possible at all to bring back the "time Remaining" message on Mojave using this battery.
Meanwhile I've plugged in the Mojave HDD and the Service Battery message is gone! Last time I've used the Mojave HDD, it was appearing consistently. But on the downside, it still keeps on not showing the time Remaining. It shows just "Power Source: Battery"
The System Information >> Power shows the battery condition as 'Normal'. It used to show "Service Battery"
I wonder if it's possible at all to bring back the "time Remaining" message on Mojave using this battery.
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From my experience "Service Battery" message is very, very bad and it is very different from "Replace Soon/Replace Now" messages. You can get rid of "Service Battery" message for a short while by reinstalling any of the macOS but it is always comes back. Once your battery gets that message it is the end of your battery regardless of the cycle count or health.
Can't you just ignore the message if you want to? Is it doing anything annoying?
If it goes away after a reinstall, there's probably some battery log somewhere on the filesystem that you could delete...
If it goes away after a reinstall, there's probably some battery log somewhere on the filesystem that you could delete...
My battery is in rough shape, but I've had that message for years now... to my surprise.
The reason I haven't replaced the battery with a third party battery yet is because it's used mostly just plugged in, but also because with third party batteries it may work OK for several months and then after that it just kinda dies, whereas with this OEM battery it's been more of a gradual decline. At least with this Service Battery message I can consistently get a short period on battery where the machine functions normally if I unplug the machine. With some of those third party batteries once they've deteriorated, if I unplug the machine it may behave erratically, sometimes just randomly shutting down.
Yes. See above. However, I was curious after downgrading from Catalina to High Sierra recently because the message disappeared. I had previously thought I had seen the message in High Sierra but thought that maybe I was misremembering because the message no longer appeared. But then it came back.
When I posted the thread I was wondering because a lot of eBay and Kijiji ads report the battery is "Normal" and show a picture with the absence of the "Service Battery" message, and I wondered if changing the OS can hide this. Anyhow, given my experience now it seems it might be prudent to take that "Normal" battery indicator with a (un)healthy dose of salt for old machines.
Nope, the "Service Battery" message doesn't have to be bad. Notice that it pops up only in certain macOS versions and at least in my case that message was false or misleading because I have a perfectly functioning battery ; it lasts 7 hours on MacBook Late 2009 and it drains very steadily, no unexpected power offs ever happened even on %2 of the battery. It's just that Mojave has popped up that message for several days when I first installed a 2nd hand OEM battery then after a while it stopped popping it up.
The only remaining problem was Mojave's still not showing the time Remaining but I've solved it too. Or better say I've worked around it by installing iStat and it shows now the battery's Remaining time perfectly:
I've drained the battery by using and opening tens of webpages on Firefox, all of them full of ads, Javascript apps overloading and taxing the CPU and the meager 3GB of RAM for about an hour. After I 've used the %24 of the battery I 've closed the FF and let the Macbook rest for a while and the iStat showed 4:15 Remaining. You see, it's only the Mojave's built-in battery app misevaluating the battery. iStat evaluates the battery correctly, calculates the Remaining time correctly.
Correct. Reinstalling macOS changed the status of my battery with only 3%!!! health back to "Normal".
The worst thing that can happen to a battery is being plugged in all the time. Therefore when buying a 10 year old Mac it is prudent to buy(as strange as it sounds) a Mac with a 1000+ cycles on it. This way you know for sure(without having to be a mentalist) that this Mac was not sitting on a desk plugged in all the time. I bought an amazing Mid 2012 13" MBP with a 1800 battery cycle count. I never ever saw a "Service Battery" message and the battery performs great.
Buying Macs with low battery count only works for a fairly recent Macs. There is a way to preserve a health of an old battery with low cycle count by discharging it to 50% and storing it on a shelf(unplugged obviously). Also recharging it once every 6 months. Realistically though no seller or owner will do that battery management.
This is not true. Most (but not all) Macs with >1000 cycles on the battery have poor battery life. You just got lucky. On the flip side, a lot of machines with 30 cycles have excellent battery life.
In fact, I just bought a 2015 MacBook Pro with 29 cycles on it. Battery is perfect... because the battery is new. I also have a 2017 MacBook with 30-something cycles on it. Battery is original, and it is also in excellent shape.
And remember, although I have "Service Battery" showing on my 12.5 year-old 2009 MacBook Pro, it's the original battery.
habit,
and we don't need my serial number there anywhos!
and i need to service my battery
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Its added step to share info. Once macOS stops sending Security Updates then if your financial data is of worth then buy a new device for another decade of Software/Security Updates.
You are just proving my point: 2015-2017 are fairly recent Macs. I also bought a 2016 13" MBP with 40 cycles and 98% battery health. The battery with 1800 cycles that I bought was also an original from 2012.
Do let me know though if you buy a 2009 Mac with original battery that has only 30 cycles and very good health. I am yet to see something like this. As I mentioned theoretically it is possible if the owner stored it charged to 50% and occasionally exercised it.
Serial numbers can theoretically be stolen by Hackintosh users who are trying to get iMessage working. This is extremely unlikely to be a problem in practice, because even if someone did steal your serial, they’d have to do something egregious to actually get it blacklisted by Apple. But, I do recommend keeping your serial out of screenshots.
(Notably—and contrary to what you may read elsewhere—it is very much possible to get iMessage working on Hackintosh without stealing anyone’s serial number. You just have to create a fake serial which follows Apple's format properly, so that iMessage will accept it. But, learning how to do that takes a few minutes, and some people are lazy and would rather leech off of screenshots.)
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2022's calling and they say upgrade the 2010 computer cause no one's gonna steal a computer that old!
The age doesn't matter in most cases as long as it's a valid serial number from an Intel Mac.
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I've discovered an app called Charge Limiter on Github downloaded and installed it on Mojave. You can set the max percentage so the charger stops charging the battery after that number and this eases the burden on the battery. Ive been using this app for 2 days now and it works fine. Here is the download link.
This should not be used in isolation all the time as it potentially can harm the battery, esp. if you have a tendency to undercharge and risk draining the battery. If you must use it, then disable it from time to time as needed.
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people would steal anything that is not glued down or not locked up.
i would be very upset if anyone stole my MacBook air, which is one of my fav things.
helk, i even refused a new MacBook air M1 last year my freelance company offered
maybe I'm attached to that since 2010.
and that WORKs!
win-win!
Thank you for the comment. That app is based on BCLM / "Battery Charge Level Max" which limits the charge of the battery to a set value and BFCL "Battery Final Charge Level" which controls the MagSafe LED indicator light to display the correct status. The following are taken from the BCLM project :
The purpose of limiting the battery's max charge is to prolong battery health and to prevent damage to the battery. Various sources show that the optimal charge range for operation of lithium-ion batteries is between 40% and 80%, commonly referred to as the 40-80 rule. Sources:
1- Why Lithium-Ion?
2- Why you should stop fully charging tour smartphone now
3- 40-80 rule: New tip for extending battery life
In the end it's stated that this project would be especially helpful to people who leave their Macs on the charger all day, every day. I leave all my laptops constantly on the charger all day every day. The battery doesn't need to be %100 charged because I won't be using it. And 100% charge is said to be harming the battery. That's why I use that app. It saves the battery from being unnecessarily fully charged.